


If I Lose Myself

by Ackerhardt



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angel Dust Typical Sexual Content, Homophobic Language, M/M, Pre Happy Hotel, Shenanigans, Slut Shaming, Tom Is A Cinnamon Roll, Tom Is Bisexual Here, Workplace Abuse, drugs & alcohol, mature language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:42:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22962586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ackerhardt/pseuds/Ackerhardt
Summary: Tom Trench for the most part leads an uneventfully slightly sad life. He may like his job at 666 News, but his co-host Katie Killjoy makes it that much harder for him.So, when Angel Dust comes to an interview at 666 News, Tom is overjoyed by the prospect of meeting one of his idols. Although, things quickly escalate from there, giving them both more than they’d originally expected.
Relationships: Angel Dust & Valentino, Angel Dust/Tom Trench (Hazbin Hotel), Tom Trench & Katie Killjoy, Tom Trench & Vox & Katie Killjoy
Comments: 23
Kudos: 86





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh dear, a whole fic of everyone being out of character with a terrible writing style. What could go wrong? 
> 
> Where did this whole ship idea come from? Ask my sleep deprived self at 2AM.

Angel was looking at his phone disinterestedly. He would rather be anywhere else but here, why would Val choose to want publicity right now? Angel really did not feel like holding an interview right now, especially not at the 666 News Station. He’d seen the kind of things that happened here, especially on air. 

Angel glanced up from the text correspondance with Cherri, where he was ranting about his situation, looking at the two news anchors. The taller one, Katie he thinks was her name, was smoking a joint, while looking at her surroundings with disgust. The other, face covered with a gas mask, was sitting on a table near Angel, looking at him. Angel was used to people staring at him, he was a famous porn actor after all and he didn’t really mind most of the time. Being admired and sought after was quite a thrill if Angel was being honest. 

“Take a picture, It'll last longer.” Angel pockets his phone, with a teasing grin on his face. The gas mask covered fellow sputters for a minute before nervously fiddling with his gloves. 

“Oh..Um…” They seem to be thinking about what to say. “You’re Angel Dust, aren’t you..?” They seem to settle for that, still looking nervous and distraught. 

“Sure am!” Angel motions to himself dramatically. “And who are you handsome?” Angel winks, practically sending the other male into a panic. It was too fun teasing people like them, Angel thinks. 

“I-I’m Tom, Tom Trench.” Tom awkwardly introduces himself, while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. Angel had definitely heard Tom’s name before while watching the news, but only now did he remember that. He wasn’t very memorable in terms of personality or anything. 

“Otherwise known as a big slut for you.” Katie cuts into the conversation, laughing cruelly while discarding her cigarette. Tom sends a glare her way, but doesn’t say anything in his defense. Angel raises a brow at the interaction. 

“A fan then?” The flirty tone is back in Angel’s voice as he addresses Tom again. Must explain why Tom felt so nervous to be around him. Tom was an odd fan though, most of Angel’s fans demanded a fuck session from and were willing to pay a hefty sum. The rest were just creepy, asking really personal questions or wanting photos, some tame, some not. Tom was not anything like that though, how curious. 

“You could say that…” Tom is unable to look the spider in the eyes, feeling too embarrassed. He’s once again pulling on the hem of his dark gray gloves. 

“Please, you worship the ground he walks on, don’t you Tom?” Katie adds to the talk again, a nasty expression on her face as she inspects her nails. Tom glances over to her direction, looking too dejected to even make a face at her. 

“I’m sure he can talk himself ya know?” Angel sends her way, feeling annoyed by her constant interruptions. Besides, her behavior reminded him too much of Val. Tom whips his head over to Angel’s direction with a surprised expression. Angel smiles internally at the happiness that was practically radiating from the co-host. Angel could imagine how he’d feel if someone stood up to Val on his behalf, pretty self indulgent if he did say so himself. 

“You’d be surprised.” Katie sneers waving him off as if he wasn’t worth her time. “But I’ll leave you two sluts to it.” Angel rolls his eyes, that was the best she could come up with?

“Like you’ve got a leg to stand on, you practically bend over for Vox whenever he’s here.” Tom clenches a hand around the table edge he’s sitting on. So he could defend himself, Angel notes, why now then? He’d been called a slut earlier too, so what was different about this case? Katie looks ready to throttle him but leaves to the other side of the set instead. Angel gives him a curious look. 

“I’d you know...apologize for her, but I’m guessing you’re used to this sort...thing?” Tom is still looking over to where Katie is standing, farther away now. So Tom was, what, protecting his honor? Definitely the weirdest fan Angel had ever met, usually they were the ones who called him names, not the ones apologizing to him for getting slutshamed or whatnot. 

“Well aren’t you just something.” Angel says aloud, not feeling as bored as he was earlier. Before they can continue their conversation however, the on air announcement comes. Katie and Tom take their seats quickly and Angel follows suit, ending up sitting between the two. In his head, Angel went over the things Valentino wanted him to say and the way he wanted him to act. 

“Welcome back!” Katie starts with her usual passive aggressive cheerful tone. She looks at Angel with a fake grin. 

“We’ve got a special guest with us today!” Tom adds, all previous signs of nervousness gone. 

“The one and only renowned Porn Actor Angel Dust!” Katie finishes while smiling wider. A small box with a picture of Angel appears on the green screen. Angel widens his eyes with a practiced blush, pretending to look embarrassed by the attention. His fans always did love it when he acted all innocent. 

“Oh you flatter me!” He says over in Katie’s direction. She starts to say something, probably insulting by the way her expression morphs to something more sinister, but Tom interrupts her. 

“We have a few questions we’d like to ask you Angel Dust, right Katie?” 

“That’s right Tom!” She responds overly happy, clearly fuming on the inside. Angel can’t help but laugh internally, this was the most passive aggressive interaction he’d seen in a very long time. He’d be lying if it wasn’t fun to watch, especially with a front row seat like he had. 

“Shoot away, anything for all my lovely fans!” Angel blows a kiss towards the camera to which the cameraman behind it makes a lewd gesture at him. He ignores it, waiting for the first question. 

\--

The interview had gone by without a hitch. Val had even texted him not too long ago, saying his performance was satisfactory. That meant Angel had the rest of the day off, too bad Cherri was on the other side of town doing something. He could really use the company. 

“What the fuck was that?” Katie’s annoying voice interrupts Angel’s thoughts. He turns to see her towering over Tom, who’s back to the nervous wreck he’d seen before the show. It was impressive acting on Tom’s part Angel had to admit, he wouldn’t have recognized them as the same people. With all the confidence Tom seemed to have on TV. Angel can see that it’s about to get physically nasty so before he can think better about it, he walks over there. 

“Heya Tom, care to join me tonight?” Angel offers one of his four hands to Tom who’s pressed against the wall. It brushes against Katie to her side, which causes her to step away face contorted with disgust. She wipes the spot of contact rigorously. 

“I ain’t that disgustin’.” Angel remarks, offended by her reaction. It had been quite some time since someone had acted like that around him. He feels Tom accept his hand, walking over to him, albeit hesitantly. 

“Fucking gays.” She curses looking at both of them pointedly. What a bitch, Angel narrows his eyes, feeling done by her whole attitude. 

“Don’t worry, we don’t like touching filth like you either.” He counters, walking away with Tom following silently behind. At the door to the backroom Angel flips her off with all four hands, an action that causes Tom to chuckle. And in a brave moment later, Tom also flips off his co-host. 

“That’s the spirit.” Angel gives him a thumbs up. 

“You really want to...to spend time with someone like me?” Tom looks like he’s ready to be rejected, but a tiny bit hopeful. Angel could be a cruel demon, but even he wasn’t that cruel, so he invites the shorter male along for his bar hopping session. 

\--

Angel takes Tom down to several bars and a few clubs. It mostly consisted of Angel drinking, hitting the dance floor or on the guys on the dance floors. Tom mostly stayed by the barcounters, watching Angel silently and enjoying the carefree attitude the spider had. He enjoyed a drink sometimes and would pay the tab Angel had accumulated at each bar. A lot of demons recognized Angel as well, striking up conversation with him, to which Angel would rope Tom into them as well. He said a few things here and there, but mostly listened, learning quite a few things. He was just mostly surprised Angel hadn’t ditched him at any point yet, Angel would’ve had plenty of opportunities, but no, he always came to take Tom with him to the next bar or club. 

At the final bar, Angel added to his drunken state by taking a few shots of cocaine. Tom rejected the hit, already having tried drugs in his lifetime and knowing it wasn’t his sort of thing. He was also starting to get worried about how Angel was going to get home. For now he’d just enjoy the time he got to spend with the infamous Angel Dust, it was already more than he could’ve ever asked for. 

“You should join me.” Angel gestures to the group of dancing demons. Tom was impressed by Angel’s resilience, how he was still able to dance after so many drinks and drugs was a mystery to Tom. He was already feeling quite tired and he’d only had a few shots of rum. The again it was clear Angel did this sort of thing much more than him. 

“I don’t dance.” He raises his voice so Angel can hear him. The spider gives a quick shrug and sits down next to Tom. 

“Eh, didn’t feel like it right now anymore either.” Angel leans his back against the counter, sitting on the stool facing the dance floor. From this angle Tom could see just how spent Angel was, clearly the drug high was wearing off. “What’s it like working on TV?” He asks, after Tom doesn’t say anything. 

“You stay well informed...I guess.” Tom looks at the various demons around him. The loud noise was starting to bother him a bit. “Although working with Katie can be challenging...” 

“Pffft, working with that bitch has got to be more than challenging and working for an Overlord is absolute shit.” Angel fixes his chest fluff and hair fluff. Tom can’t deny that what Angel said about Katie was true, but working for Vox wasn’t that bad in all honesty. 

“You work for Valentino right?” He asks, wanting to confirm something he’d heard at one of the bars. He’d seen Valentino a few times, mostly when Vox came to check on them. In fact, he’d seen a lot of Overlords, though nothing would compare to the heart attack he’d gotten when The Radio Demon had decided to stop by, looking for Vox. The only thing positive about the whole thing was that Katie had been as terrified as him, which was fun to see. 

“Yeah..” Angel responds, less carefree at the mention of the Overlord. Tom had a few ideas on why, seeing as he’d been witness to how Valentino liked to treat his employees. He was curious about what it was like to work for Valentino full time. 

“What’s it like working for Valentino?”

“What’s it like working for Vox?” 

They ask each other at the same time and they both stop, realizing. Angel starts laughing loudly and Tom joins in after a bit, if a bit quieter. Neither of them get an answer to their question as Angel gets invited back to dance by some crocodile demon. Tom watches again, feeling a pang of jealousy and the music starting to really get to him. Despite that he stays, not wanting to just abruptly leave, that would be rude. 

Angel returns a good twenty minutes later slurring something about wanting to go home. Tom tries to get Angels’ address, but with no success. Everything he’d been having had finally caught up to him and nothing sensible was coming out of Angel's mouth. Tom panics for a few minutes before deciding to take Angel back to his place. He wasn’t looking forward to explaining to Angel why, he, a complete stranger had taken him back to his place. 

The walk back to Tom’s smaller house is not a very long one. He struggles a bit due to Angel’s freakish height, but luckily makes it without any major incidence. A few demons congratulate him for ‘scoring such a good fuck’ and Angel does throw up in a few alleys. But beyond that Tom manages to get Angel back safely. 

Inside Tom leaves Angel inside his bathroom, in case he still has to throw up. He cleans his apartment a bit, feeling self conscious about its state. Angel probably wouldn’t even notice that, but he couldn’t help but feel paranoid about it. In the middle of his cleaning the spider saunters inside looking disoriented. Tom quickly guides him to his bed, letting him sleep on it while Tom sleeps on his couch. He could imagine how terrible Angel felt, and didn’t want him to be any more uncomfortable. 

The night was more chaotic, Angel got a fever in the middle, leaving Tom to deal with it. Angel also started mumbling about something unintelligible keeping Tom awake. A few times Angel fell off the bed and then got super paranoid about something Tom couldn’t figure out. All of these added together meant that Angel got a few hours of restless sleep and Tom gave up halfway, pouring himself coffee to stay awake the whole night. Work would not be fun at all, he felt hungover, sleep deprived and mentally drained. 

Somewhere a few hours before he had to go to work Angel roused, looking confused but then seemingly understanding what had happened. He looks around the room before spotting Tom on the couch. 

“Did we fuck?” Angel asks very eloquently, still looking exhausted. 

“No.” Tom responds flatly, taking another sip of his coffee, losing count of how many he’d already had. 

“Really? Are you sure?” Angel blinks the sleepiness from his eyes, feeling around his body with his hands, they really hadn’t had sex, Angel realizes. “Huh, why am I here then?” 

“Well, you were wasted. I didn’t know where you lived...didn’t want you to get hurt either.” Tom explains, feeling slightly embarrassed at the prospect. “So...I took you here…” 

Angel inspects Tom for any malicious intent, but finds none. He feels confused, demons didn’t just help other demons without a motive. What did Tom want from him then? 

Tom looks at his phone after receiving a notification that Vox would be at the Station today, just great. The one day Tom was incopetent he decided to show up. 

“I’m going to go freshen’ up, that okay?” Angel gets up from the bed he was on, patting down his wrinkled suit. Tom looks up from his phone nodding. With that Angel heads inside the bathroom, making himself more presentable. He didn’t need to look perfect, as he had no work, but he still couldn’t look like he did right now. He represented the Studio even when he wasn’t on the clock.

Tom makes himself a quick breakfast, which was a smoothie including things that should never be mixed together. Right now he couldn’t care less and downed the concoction in one gulp as Angel walks out, looking a lot better than he did previously. 

“Imma head out uh…” Angel couldn’t recall the name of the demon who’s home he resided in. 

“Tom.” Tom offers, not surprised that his name was forgotten, but still a bit sad at the realization. 

“Yea, Tom, gonna go back to those bars y’know.” Angel tries to lighten the mood. Normally he would’ve just left without saying anything, but he knew he’d feel guilty doing that to someone like Tom. 

“You’re doing that all again?” Tom doesn’t even try to hide the shock from his voice. Was Angel Dust really that resilient? 

“Oh Hell no, just need to pay all the bars back before they come for my ass.” Angel explains before adding. “Literally.” 

“I already paid your tabs.” Tom notifies the spider, stretching his back with a few pops. He felt significantly less shy around Angel by now, the sleep deprivation helping quite a bit.

“You--what?” Angel stops, staring at Tom intently, who shrinks a bit under his gaze, but only a little. So, Tom had been paying the whole time they were out, then taken him here, while not taking advantage of him and still seemed to have no ulterior motive. No way that was the truth here. “I’ll get ya your money back don’t worry.” 

“It’s alright, I’m just grateful you took me with you.” He’d have to leave for the Station soon if he didn’t want to be late. 

“Wow--I don’t know what to say.” Angel plays off the situation while still seeing if Tom would try something. 

“A thank you would be nice.” Tom says before he can catch himself and regrets it immediately. He pockets his phone and fiddles with his fingers, hoping Angel wouldn’t be too mad at him. Would Angel hurt him for it? 

“Aren’t you bold.” Angel teases instead, causing Tom to sigh in relief. “How about my number instead?” Angel pulls out a pencil from his pocket and writes his number on a poster he sees of himself. He writes quickly, with a pink heart at the end. Then he tells Tom he has other places to be.

Angel waves goodbye and leaves Tom’s apartment. Tom gawks at the door that Angel had exited out of, was he still dreaming? Did he just really get the number of THE Angel Dust? He probably would’ve sat there all day shocked if his phone didn’t notify him to leave for work. 

\--

With labored steps Tom walks into the broadcasting room, slumping into his chair and leaning his head against the desk. He can hear Katie sit down next to him and he mentally prepares for whatever she has to say to him. 

“How was it living your dream as a whore?” Katie starts with a tone of glee. He doesn’t say anything, too tired and too used to this kind of treatment. It didn’t mean that it didn’t bother him though. “Maybe you’d finally realize your true calling, because it sure isn’t in this industry.” 

“Vox employed both of us.” Tom reminds her, still lying face first against the desk. He can hear her hesitate, must’ve been surprised that he bothered to say anything in his defense. 

“You see, you have to employ one competent person and one incompetent person, that way the dynamic balances out, and you provide entertainment for the masses. Everyone loves a good failure!” Katie must’ve started smoking again, based on the sound of her smushing the cigarette against the desk. If anything, the gas mask was useful for filtering out the smoke. 

“A few minutes till we’re live!” 

Katie flicks the ashes of her cigarette onto him and he in turn flicks them off of himself when they land too close to his mask. He feels his patience thinning, it would be SO satisfying…

He can hear Vox’s mechanical voice somewhere offset talking to that one cameraman that failed last week’s shoot. Katie was saying something else to him, but he wasn’t listening. Instead, listening to what his boss was talking about, that was certainly more interesting. Currently Vox was talking to the demon about improving his performance and something about a deadline. 

“What? Did that faggot—“ 

“And we’re live!” 

Tom snaps up from the desk, his restraint gone, reaching over and slamming Katie’s face into the desk, snapping her neck in half like she often did herself. Then he pulls her backwards towards the floor behind the desk. It’s there that she changes to her true demon form, fighting back and tearing at him. They duke it out on the floor until he feels some form of wiring restrain him, and pull Katie back from on top of him as well. 

There was so much he still wanted to do to her, all those years of tolerating her. Screw dealing with it, he wanted revenge. Did it really matter that much that sleep deprivation had thrown all forms of his self preservation out the window? 

“Fight me you fucking pussy!” He heard her taunt him. 

“Oh be quiet you little cunt!” What the fuck where these cables made out of?? He couldn’t move at all. 

“Cut cut!” 

The whole studio goes into chaos, until Vox breaks up everyone else as well. In fact, he blows the power from the whole place, clearly enraged. The Overlord kicks everyone out except the two of them. Tom feels his earlier confidence dwindle into nothingness in front of Vox. Even Katie seems to be less hostile than usual, and even a little humiliated, serves her right. She busies herself with fixing her hair, that was a mess from the earlier brawl. Tom fixes his gloves instead, it being a nervous habit of his. 

“Never, and I mean never, have I seen something as stupid as this! On live fucking air!” They both look everywhere but at the fuming Overlord in front of them. 

“Tom, go outside, I’m talking to you both separately, maybe that will get this point across CLEARER.” Tom scrambles out the room, sitting just outside. He imagines all kinds of different scenarios, all involving him either getting fired or killed. Neither which sounded like a fun option to him. 

A good thirty minutes later Katie walks out, looking ready to cry. Once she sees him, she gives him a death glare and storms out of the Station. Had she gotten fired? Maybe him getting fired wasn’t so bad, if he took that bitch down with him. 

“Inside. Now.” He hears from inside Vox’s personal office. Tom quickly walks inside, sitting down on the chair facing his boss. The whole ordeal felt like some sort of walk of shame, probably was too. He doesn’t say anything and stares at the floor, waiting for his impending doom. 

“Is there something you’d like to say about Katie?” Vox starts, voice completely passive. 

“There are several things.” There’s a firm tone to Tom’s voice as he thinks bitterly through all of the colorful language in his vocabulary. 

“Things that aren’t swear words.” Vox clarifies, with an undertone of amusement. 

“...then no…” this time a bit quieter. 

“Look, the thing is, I like both of you as co-hosts. You usually do the job with a good performance and I don’t particularly want to replace either of you. It’s a goddamn big hassle. But if a thing like this happens again? I will not hesitate to fire both of you on the spot, maybe kill the instigator too.” Vox explains, sounding almost like a disappointed mother to Tom’s small amusement. Mostly however, Tom is surprised by the lack of anger in the TV demon’s explanation. 

“I expected something like this from Katie, but not really from you. Care to explain?” Vox crosses his arms, still frowning. 

“Permission to speak freely?” Tom tended to slip into military speak when he was incredibly nervous. There was also a weariness that slipped into his voice without him being able to stop it. 

“Granted.” Vox responds, amusement more present. Was the TV demon making fun of him? Well, not like he could do much about that. 

Tom proceeds to rant, shyly, about Katie’s unprofessional behavior. He mentions all of her insults, jabs and physical abuse that affected his work. He didn’t bother to include the petty insults or the small injuries he received from her, this was Hell after, no one really cared. So he settled for all injuries and defamation that affected his career performance. Finally finishing with an awkward cough, watching for his boss’ reaction. Vox seems to think for a minute. 

“We’ll talk about this later with both of you, for now, you’re both on a temporary suspension without pay. And when you return to work, you’ll both be on one strike. Now, make yourself scarce.” Vox makes a shooing gesture, looking just as tired as Tom felt. Tom doesn’t waste any time leaving the suffocating atmosphere of Vox’s office. How he hadn’t gotten fired was beyond him, but he wasn’t going to complain. The suspension was going to be annoying, he’d have to conserve his money until he got a paycheck again. 

Tom opens his phone to check for any new messages and notices three missed calls from an unknown number. Tom hesitantly dials the number back, not thinking of anyone that would want to call him. The call gets to three rings when the other demon answers. 

“Heya Tom!” He hears from the other line. 

“Angel Dust?” That didn’t make any sense. Why would Angel call him, and how did he have his number? He hadn’t given it to Angel, it had been the other way around. 

“Ya sound disappointed!” Tom can practically hear the pout from Angel. 

“Oh! Um, of course not!” In fact Tom was honored Angel would bother calling him. “How did you get this number though?” 

“It’s on your website genius.” Angel laughs after finishing. 

“...Oh yeah.” Tom feels like an idiot, his and Katie’s personal information was on 666 News Station website. 

“Anyways, I called ya to congratulate you for that performance on TV.” There’s a shuffling sound coming from Angel’s side. 

“...” Tom sighs after a bit. 

“Don’t sound so glum! You showed that ugly bitch her place, must’ve been loads of fun too.” Angel says cheerily. 

“I won’t argue there.” Tom reminisces to the pure elation he’d gotten from smashing that oversized head of hers into the desk. It’s not like she hadn’t had that coming. 

“What happened afterwards? I mean, can’t imagine your boss was too happy, even if she totally deserved it and it was fun as hell to watch.” At least Angel seemed to be enjoying himself. 

“Unpaid suspension.” Is the simple answer Tom gives Angel. 

“Ah, big ouch.” Angel winces, that was tough. Although it was a lot less than Angel imagined, in Val’s case it would’ve been an execution, a public one at that. 

“Mhmm.” Tom tries not to think about it, lest he risk getting too depressed. When he got depressed, he started having the flashbacks again. 

“How about I take you to a nice club downtown where we can get fucked up and forget about our afterlives?” Angel suggests, and if Tom was braver, he’d tease the spider about this sounding like a date. Alas, he wasn’t that bold, and didn’t comment on it. “Don’t worry about the money, this time I’ll pay.” 

“I’d...I’d really like that.” Tom says after a pause, smiling internally because he couldn’t externally. Maybe his could turn into something for him, he allowed himself to hope.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we're already getting to the Hotel timeline and a bit past it.

“Isn’t tomorrow the end of your vacation?” Angel’s voice comes through the phone, muffled by what Tom guessed was a hairdryer. 

“Unpaid suspension, not a vacation.” Tom reminds, feeling relieved that he could go back to work. Even more delighted to see that ratings had dropped with the replacement hosts. Tom did feel a slight sense of dread towards having to work with Katie again, but he couldn’t really afford to mess up. 

“Pffft, any time off work is vacation.” Angel argues, turning off the supposed hairdryer. 

“Until you’re flat broke that is…” Tom points out, knowing he himself was low on cash at the moment. “Do you have work today?” 

“God don’t remind me, Val wants me in this big new shoot of his.” Angel groans and Tom could imagine Angel dramatically flopping onto his bed. Although Tom didn’t know what kind of bed, he’d never visited the Spider’s abode. 

“I wish you the bestest of luck..” Tom says awkwardly, not quite knowing how he could reassure Angel. 

“Thanks, I’m goin’ ta need it.” Angel says, sounding tired. “That bein’ said, I need to head out, catch ya later?” 

“Yes please!” Tom scolds himself for sounding so hopeful and desperate. Luckily Angel doesn’t mock him for it and instead ends the call. Which gives Tom time to do what he had done for the past few weeks, think. 

Angel had been taking him to a lot of escapades, excluding the turf wars that his friend Cherri Bomb seemed to drag him into. Tom didn’t really want to participate in the whole turf war struggle either, so he appreciated not being dragged to those. He did quite enjoy seeing Cherri Bomb however, she was quite the looker. Everything else he got dragged to was, bars (like the first day), strip joints, whatever random location Cherri had picked and then there was that one time Angel took him to a spot with a nice view. That had been fun, it had a scenic view on pentagram city, in all its chaotic glory. 

“Sooo, whaddya think?” Angel had gestured to the view. They were on top an abandoned building that just happened to be y’all and on a small high rise. Tom could see all the neon flashing lights, broken down structures and the bustling of the demons below. In human standard it wouldn’t have been anything to look at, but Tom had been down here long enough to appreciate the view. Besides, anything that wasn’t the mud soaked trenches with endless noise was better. 

“I-it’s really pretty.” Kind of like you, Tom completed in his head. He wasn’t brave enough to ever say that to Angel though. “..do you come here often?” 

“Eh, sometimes. Nice place to bail to ya know?” Angel leans back on a set of his arms, swinging his legs over the edge. Tom nods in understanding, it was nice to get away every now and again. 

Angel had opened up to Tom a bit that night, mostly talking about his work and Cherri. It wasn’t much, but it meant the world to Tom, he felt special at that moment. It also gave him more confidence in speaking with Angel more naturally. 

Another thing that Angel had taken to after that night was calling him. It seemed that Angel didn’t have a lot of people to talk to, because the spider would call pretty often, just to talk. Tom didn’t really mind, he had no problem listening to Angel ramble on about what had happened that day, or gossip about his clients. It was quite a relaxing process actually, there was no stress on Tom to keep up a conversation, he could just listen and make acknowledgements when necessary. He just really hoped Angel enjoyed his company just as much as he did Angel’s. 

—

“Don’t you dare fuck this up.” Katie was glaring daggers at Tom, who was doing his best to ignore her. He scrolls through his phone instead, looking at anything interesting, but not really finding anything. 

“Two minutes till we’re live!” 

Katie to Tom’s surprise, doesn’t find anything else to insult him on. She just smokes her cigarette, seemingly deep in thought about something. She was probably trying to appear nice to Vox, who had come in today. Clearly the TV demon hadn’t forgotten the incident and didn’t trust the both of them to act civil. Katie flicks her cigarette off in his direction, getting ready to start the broadcast and Tom also takes a seat on one of the chairs. It was weird to feel it again after being gone for so long, but familiarity struck him a few seconds later. 

“And we’re live!” 

All in all, the broadcast had been successful, neither him nor Katie was fired after it. It brought on a sense of relief to Tom, who had felt anxious for the entirety of the thing. Now, he just wanted to unwind at home. He would’ve done that if his phone hadn’t rung in his pocket. 

“Hey uhh…” Tom recognizes Angel’s voice on the other side. 

“It’s Tom.” 

“Yes, Tom, say, do ya have a bathtub?” Angel is quick to ask, sounding awkward for the first time. 

“...What?” Tom is thrown off. 

“Well, the plumbers have to fix some issues, so like, I’m outta runnin’ water. But I really need to take a shower and a bath.” Angel explains, sounding annoyed and still a little embarrassed. “You know how long it takes those assholes at plumbing to complete anything.” 

“Yes, I’m...unfortunately aware.” Tom recalls the very long month where they were ‘fixing’ the pipes ‘as fast as they could’.

“So do you?” Angel sounds impatient now. 

“Huh...oh, y-yes I do! And uh...yes you can you know…” Tom fumbles awkwardly, just the thought of all this was making him feel embarrassed. 

“Great, I’ll be over soon.” Angel hangs up the call. Meanwhile Tom panics, running the rest of the way home. He had to tidy up his apartment and mentally prepare himself for the Spider’s visit. 

Luckily Tom had kept the apartment clean, paranoid that a situation like this would happen. Now he was thankful for his foresight, as he didn’t have to stress over it at the moment, now all he had to stress over were his nerves. He didn’t get to do that for very long as knocking interrupted him. 

“You’re here already…?” Tom asks, opening the door for Angel. 

“Don’ live too far.” Angel has to duck a bit, the entrance being too low. 

“You remembered where I live??” Tom closes the door behind Angel still in a daze. 

“How could I forget?” Angel winks, clutching a toiletries bag. “I won’t be too long.” 

“..t-take as long as you need.” Tom informs Angel who had started heading for the bathroom. Tom moved to one of his seats, where he started tapping his foot while browsing social media. Katie had posted a new picture onto her page, he didn’t bother liking it. Next he watched a new update on Velvet’s blog, it was quite entertaining, even if he did feel partially bad for his boss. Angel was the next person in his following to have posted anything, it was quite suggestive, and he looked at it a bit longer than he would care to admit. Cherri had updated her situation regarding her quest for gaining new territory. Beyond those few, no one interesting had posted anything noteworthy. 

“Thanks for lettin’ me borrow your showers.” Angel emerges from the bathroom, fully clothed appearing as pristine as ever. The spider sits on Tom’s bed, leaning against a pair of arms. “God, I swear I’m aching all over.” Angel complains loudly. 

“I can help with that.” Tom says, hesitating after Angel looks in his direction. “...If you want…” 

“You’re just full’a hidden surprises, aren’t ya?” Angel questions amusedly, before gesturing with a hand for Tom to come over. “But by all means, do help me.” 

Tom makes his way over, sitting behind Angel, beginning his work. Angel hadn’t been kidding, all of the spider’s muscles were very tightly wound. Angel let out a contented sigh, closing his eyes. 

“This is going to hurt a bit.” Tom informs, before adding pressure into loosening the muscles. He can see Angel trying to not make a reaction and if Tom was honest, it looked quite adorable. A few surprised gasps come from Angel every now and again as a response to the massaging. 

“And just where did you learn this skill?” Angel starts conversation, the silence feeling oppressive. 

“You have a lot of time...in trenches.” Tom falters for a moment, ignoring the myriad of emotions threatening to make themselves known. “Nowhere to go, not much to do.” 

“..Ah.” Angel could sense the reluctance from Tom, so he racks his brain for a better topic to talk about. “Do you follow Velvet’s blog?” 

“Yes I do.” Tom is glad for the out given by the Spider. 

“Isn’t it amazing how she manages to keep up good relations with everyone, despite what she posts?” Angel steers the conversation, with the whole mood taking a more positive note. So idle chit chatter is what fills the room until Tom stops and Angel eventually leaves. 

\--

The next time Tom gets to see Angel is when he gets invited over. They’d talked plenty on phone or through social media, but they hadn’t physically met since Angel had visited his home. It would mark the first time he’d been over to Angel’s house and the prospect enough was exciting. Would the room be pink like Angel’s choice of appearance? Would it be some very surprising color? Did Angel own a big or small apartment? All kinds of questions bounce around in Tom’s head as he heads to the address given to him by Angel. 

Angel hadn’t lied when he’d said it wasn’t too far from his own house. It appeared to be in an apartment complex like Tom’s own. Not too fancy, but still better than what most sinners had to deal with. According to Angel, he lived on the second floor, so luckily there weren’t too many stairs. 

The description that Angel had given Tom of his room door was something that was unmissable. ‘Look for the room door with an unsymmetrical 69 on it,’ Angel had said. Tom was almost 100% sure Angel had purchased his living space in a way that he could do that. But surely enough, there was a room with the 6 below the 9 and looking unsteady. Upon closer inspection, Tom concluded that this was in truth, room 99 until Angel had messed with it. Tom couldn’t resist the urge to shake his head, it was just so Angel like. 

“Have fun.” Someone walked past Tom, startling him. The demon gave him a wink and then went down the stairs, not offering any further explanation. Deciding to ignore the interruption, he hesitantly knocks on Angel’s door. Tom waits awkwardly fiddling with his gloves until Angel opens the door with a smirk. 

“Welcome to my humble abode!” The spider says dramatically, gesturing for Tom to go in further. He does so, taking a good look at Angel’s room. It wasn’t very extraordinary, save for the very big and unnecessarily extravagant bed. There was a small outlying theme of pink everywhere and a few items meant for more lewd acts. “So, whaddya think?” Angel had been standing right behind Tom, leaning very much into his personal space. 

“Simpler than I thought...and the amount of pink I assumed it would be…” Tom responds, eyes lingering on the very out of place bed. Angel was going to respond, probably with something sarcastic, but Tom’s attention is driven away when a tiny adorable pink little pig hops onto the bed. It looks back to Tom with a curious oink and he felt his heart soften at the sight, it was so cute…

“You have a pet??” Tom asks Angel while approaching the bed slowly, not wanting to startle the pig. Angel walks from behind him to the bed faster, taking the pig into his lap. 

“Yea, this is Fat Nuggets.” Angel has an almost protective hold over Fat Nuggets, making Tom wonder if he’d done something wrong. Did Nuggets not like other demons? Did other demons not like Nuggets? Although he couldn’t see how they wouldn’t. “Ya know, you’re the first one to actually ask if NugNug is a pet.” 

“Huh?” Tom is confused, what else would the tiny pig be? “What else could...uh...Fat Nuggets be?” 

“Food everyone says.” The spider has a very distasteful tone. Tom is thrown into a small panic, no way, not that cute innocent creature. 

“You’re not going to eat him are you?!” 

“What? No of course not.” Angel replies instantly, patting Fat Nuggets reassuringly, seemed like the pig didn’t like the idea of being eaten either. With that, Tom lets out a sigh of relief, sitting on the bed next to Angel, watching the pig. It looked at Tom back, a vacuous look of happiness that seemed to bless Tom’s soul. “You can hold him if ya like?” 

“Really?” Tom doesn’t bother hiding his excitement. Angel scoops up the pig, setting him on Tom’s lap while Tom internally gushes. Nuggets gives Tom a small tilt of its head before seemingly deciding he was safe enough and plops down on his lap. Tom beams at the pig, completely missing the fond look Angel is giving the scene. 

“So, I invited ya here for a reason.” Angel interrupts after a bit. 

“Oh yes, what was it?” Tom is still watching the pig on his lap. 

“I actually need help packing, I’m going to be moving soon.” Angel admits, giving his slightly messy room a glance, probably assessing the amount of work that would have to be done on the room. 

“Really? Where?” Tom looks away from Fat Nuggets, giving Angel a curious look. Angel sighs in resignation. 

“There’s this crappy Hotel across town, The Harpy Hotel I call it, ‘cause it’s run by these two harpies.” Angel pauses, coughing intentionally before changing his voice to sound more feminine. “No problematic language, no fights, drugs, pranks or drinking. Those are the rules Angel Dust for if you want to say here, you got it?” Tom snickers a bit afterwards, that sounded like the most stupid thing to ask of someone, they were in Hell. 

“Why the hell would you be moving into a place like that?” Tom is at a complete loss, what made all that fuss worth it? 

“Ya see, those suckers have the rooms out for free.” Angel grins wickedly. 

“What kind of moron would do that?” Tom can’t help but ask, how did the owners plan to keep the Hotel running? Was it some kind of big shot that was in charge, someone with a lot of money? Like an Overlord? He was going to ask but Angel beat him to it. 

“Are ya goin’ to help then?” 

“Sure.” Tom agrees, carefully moving Fat Nuggets from his lap to the bed. 

Angel had a surprising amount of things and more unsurprisingly a vast collection of outfits. All ranging from casual to outright skimpy. Most of the time went into packing all the clothing, the second most time taking in packing all of Fat Nugget’s supplies. Finally the random collection of things was easier to gather and pack. Regardless it took them hours to finish and all Tom wanted to do by the end was pass out and sleep for a few hundred years. Angel seemed to have picked up on this as well, as he gives Tom an amused smile. 

“Ya can stay here if ya like.” Angel offers, sitting back down on his bed and stretching all his four arms, most of them making small popping sounds. 

“...Thank you.” Tom sits down on Angel’s bed as well, barely being able to think straight. He might’ve pushed himself a bit too much. This becomes painfully apparent as he falls asleep, leaning towards Angel, head blissfully resting in the Spider’s chest fluff. He wakes up in a jolt almost immediately, noting the extreme comfortableness of Angel’s chest. “C-can I sleep here?” He was lucky he wasn’t thinking straight as he asks that. Angel chuckles with a nonchalant attitude to him. 

“Sure, knock yourself out.” 

“..Great, just let me know in the morning how much I owe you.” Tom says, resting back properly on the criminally fluffy chest. Within a few seconds he’s fully asleep again. 

“Don’t worry Tom, ya don’t owe me nothin’.” Angel says to the sleeping form. 

\--

Tom was silently thinking back to all that had transpired since after his visit to Angel’s, it was all a good distraction from the pain he was in right now. By now the Spider had already moved, but Tom had yet to visit the place. They’d gone other places together though, and in one of them, Angel had very seriously asked if they could become a thing. A moment in Tom’s life where he’d fainted on the spot. Of course after he’d woken up he’d immediately said yes, also marking the happiest moment of his life. Angel had told him not to tell anyone, and Tom had promised to keep the secret. He’d come to learn many things from the spider in that short interval, while still being practically in disbelief at his situation, not that he was complaining. Speaking of, Angel had just messaged him before about going to help out Cherri with a turf war. He hoped the Spider wouldn’t get hurt, although Angel was quite tough. 

“I’m too rich and influential to give a flying fuck about what some tux wearing princess wants to advertise.” Katie’s words to the princess of Hell cut into his thoughts and he gave the princess a look, while shaking his head. 

“But I--”

“So don’t get cute with me honey, or I will fucking bury you.” Katie jabs an aggressive finger to the princess's chest. 

“And we’re live!” 

Katie rushes to her broadcast seat, the princess joining her, marking the start of the broadcast. He watches, as the princess, or Charlie, starts a long speech about the denizens of Hell. Katie even falls asleep in the middle of it, but Tom didn’t want to be that rude, even if it was pretty boring to listen to. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m opening the first of its kind, a Hotel that rehabilitates sinners!” 

At that statement, Tom finally understands everything Angel had told him about the Hotel. The idea was just as stupid as he’d first imagined it to be, he did feel bad for her though, this was her passion project after all. He also felt bad that her only patron was Angel, who had no intentions of rehabilitation, he hoped Charlie knew that. Even worse was the long awkward silence that passes the place, clearly everyone agreed this idea was terrible. 

Charlie continues, taking a more serious tone, before an idea seems to pass through her mind. And a second later she starts a musical number, confusing him and Katie greatly. He could barely keep up with her movements and could only catch half the lyrics. Did she seriously just improvise this song? He couldn’t help the very disturbed expression he gives by the end of the song. 

The laughing starts up right after, and he joins in, come on, this was one of the most embarrassing things he’d ever seen! It was too funny not to laugh at. Katie barely recovers from her laughing before already mocking Charlie, while Tom stops, just silently watching now. 

“Well, we have a patron already, who believes in our cause and he’s shown incredible progress!” Charlie counters, looking confident. Tom’s mind comes to a halt, don't’ say Angel, don’t say Angel, he chants in his head. This was going to end very badly if she did. 

“Oh? Who might that be?” Katie leans in, not deterred in the least. 

“Oh..just someone named...Angel Dust!” Charlie says. Almost immediately Tom noticed the cruel curiosity off of Katie at the mention of Angel Dust, she kept suspecting his and Angel’s relationship. If he played dumb now, maybe it would lower her suspicioussness of them two. 

“The Porn Star?” Not that dumb! Tom screams in his mind, while seeing Katie give him a very cruel grin, catching his mistake. 

“You fucking would Tom.” She grates her nails against the table while he cringes away from her show of aggressiveness. So much for that…

“In any case, that’s hardly an accomplishment. I’m sure you can get that hooker to do anything with enough--” 

Tom is already giving her a look, she just loved to talk down to Angel, didn’t she? This was the biggest fiasco Tom had seen in awhile, he was already starting to feel some second hand embarrassment for Charlie. Especially if she thought Angel was really trying to be rehabilitated. And what if they filmed the turf war? He didn’t even want to think about that--

“Breaking news!” 

Tom couldn’t help the small sigh. This was going to get even worse, it was all so hilarious, but painfully so. 

“You must feel really stupid right now.” Katie says, laughing afterwards, which Tom joins into. This was going to gain some publicity after all. 

“Ratings!” They both say unanimously. While Charlie panics, trying to block the green screen. What did Charlie think she was going to accomplish by doing that?

Katie starts mocking Charlie again, clearly finding this very amusing. And then Charlie makes the mistake of taking Katie’s pen and calling her a bitch. Tom knew exactly where this was going and he was not going to stick around to deal with it. 

Even though he ran for his life, he was still set on fire. HOW??

“WHY WON'T ANYONE HELP ME?” 

\--

Angel calls Tom after the whole fiasco down at the Station. It had been quite the mess, that other girl who came with Charlie had stepped in, while Katie had calmed down. Vox had come down, using a fire extinguisher to put out the fire that was him, and everyone was dismissed for the day. All in all, it was a terrible day and now his whole body hurt. 

“--And I got lectured by them again!” Angel ranted. “I mean what was one little brawl really going to cause?” Tom felt his eye twitch at that, and in a moment of spite, he hung up the call. Although he immediately regretted it and called the Spider back. 

“Go on.” Tom urges Angel to finish the rant he was on. 

“Well then the weirdest thing happened! This tall perma smiley guy shows up.” Angel states. “I think they called him the radio demon or something--”

“THE Radio Demon?!” Tom interjects. 

“You know him too? Man, guess I was really missin’ out. But yeah anyways, after a bit of talking and singing, he now works for the Hotel or something?” Angel doesn’t sound nearly as concerned as he should be by that fact. 

“Of course I know him, he’s only my boss’s biggest rival.” Tom responds. “He works at the Hotel??” He couldn’t fathom a reason why any Overlord would ever invest any time or effort into a project that was bound to fail. Though Tom wouldn’t realize what a problem the Radio Demon would really become to him later. 

\--

Tom finished the phone call with Angel, accordingly he wanted to be left alone at the moment. Angel had warned him that if anyone asked where he was, that he couldn’t tell them. The Hotel seemed to have started wearing on Angel’s patience and Tom could understand why. By now he’d had a chance to visit a few times, and he’d even got to have sex with Angel. All he could say is that Angel was really good at what he did. But the Hotel could be a bit...much at times. Especially when the Radio Demon, or Alastor as he was referred to as there, was roaming around. 

Right now Tom would have to focus on his performance though. Vox had decided to come down again after not being here in awhile, and he didn’t want to look bad. Tom was going to head back to the broadcasting room from the backstage room when he heard a sort of static arise. Tom swore he saw his life flash before him at the realization. 

“Say, my good fellow, you wouldn't happen to know the location of a certain elusive spider, would you?” The unmistakable, radio filtered voice of Alastor interrupts Tom. Tom turns to face the demon, who has his telltale wide grin. 

“W-why would I-i..?” Tom leans his back towards the door that leads to the broadcasting room, trying to sound convincing. But as he assumed, Alastor is not convinced, had he been listening to Tom’s conversation with Angel? 

“Come now, you’re practically glued to his side, surely you have some idea.” Alastor’s grin widens, probably at the petrified state Tom is in. He couldn’t tell where Angel was, but at the same if he didn’t, he wasn’t sure what Alastor would do. That’s when Tom remembers that Vox was here today! Maybe if he ran to the broadcasting room, he’d be saved. 

Taking that opportunity, Tom runs into the broadcasting room. Katie gives him a startled look as he runs behind the news desk. Vox, who luckily was in the room, also looks confused. But as Alastor makes himself known, Vox grins. 

“Why hello Al, didn’t expect to see you here and…” Vox looks between Tom and Alastor. “...pestering my crew.” 

“Don’t read into things too much.” Alastor sounds none too pleased that Vox was here. 

The two continue to argue, while Tom puts a hand to his heart, taking deep breaths. He had survived! Now if he never had to do that again, it would be even better. 

\--

“Hello Tom!” Charlie greeted when he entered. All of the staff knew him now, and his relationship with Angel was no secret to anyone there. “Angel is in his room.” She points up the stairs. 

“Thank you Charlie.” He nods politely, he was amazed that she hadn’t held any animosity towards him despite what had happened during her interview. 

He heads towards Angel’s room, passing a few demons who were staying at the Hotel as well. Finally arriving at the room, he walks in, not needing to knock anymore and spots Angel lounging on his bed. 

“There you are! Welcome back.” Angel says grinning. Tom closes the door, how had he managed to get so lucky?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a lot of fun to write, and I still can't believe anyone bothered to read any of this. This even had some inaccuracies in it, but I just really like the idea of this pairing for some reason. 
> 
> So thank you to everyone who's bothered to read, give kudos or comment on this! They are very much appreciated!!

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve Yee’d My Last Haw.


End file.
